I would strip the affected leaves.

And go ahead and learn to use the sprayer. It really isn't that complicated, and the amounts of the chemicals to use is on the product label. At our house, we have his-and-hers sprayers. DH was forever putting Round-up into the sprayer, then forgetting what it was. I was paranoid about using a sprayer, even after good rinsing, that had had Round up in it. So, the sprayers on the left hand side of the garage are mine, and are labeled (one for insecticide, one for fungicide, and one for weed killers), and the ones on the right side of the garage are his. Guess ones get used the most? You can do it!

And, yes, I've seen black spot kill roses. Our neighboring town planted some roses around their courthouse flagpole - then never took care of them. By fall, they had absolutely no leaves, and by the next spring, they were barren twigs. A plant needs leaves to survive.

Is there something about his sprayer that is the problem? If that is it, go to Home Depot and buy an easy-to-use 1 gal. hand-pump sprayer in the garden center and a bottle of Bayer Advanced Garden Disease Control (fungicide). Following directions, put some Bayer in the sprayer (about 1.5 tablespoon, if I remember correctly), a few drops of dishwater soap (I never can remember if Bayer already has a stick-um in it), and fill the sprayer with water up to the 1 gal. mark. Then pump the handle up and down several times and turn it back to the lock position. Aim the wand at the bush and press the "on" button (you may have to adjust the tip of the wand to a wider spray pattern). Spray until everything is wet.

That's it.

Oh, yes--pick an early morning when there is almost no wind at all, and make sure you are wearing long pants/long sleeves, etc., at the very least, and always stay downwind from the spray wand.

The hardest part about spraying for me is making myself do it--but with the cooler temps, I know my garden is going to have a bout of BS, so I assume yours will too, unfortunately.

Really, it is very easy to spray--once I convince myself to get off my duff and actually do it. LOL

Good luck,
Kate

It depends on what kind of fungicide you use. Some will not stop the BS once you have it, they will just prevent it. So it may be too late.

But I would have DH do it when he gets back, it's not a good idea to let the roses go into dormancy with all that BS.

Next spring, have him show you how to use the sprayer so you can do it if he's not there.

As long as the leaves are green, I would leave them on tunil someone can start the spray program again. Blackspot alone won't kill the rose but the lack of leaves will impact the health of the plant. No leaves, weak plant, and THAT can lead it the plant's demise. If the leaves are yellow, remove them, they are no longer productive. Note that I had leafless roses for many years until I found a treatment program that works for me. And I would keep spraying through October.

Thanks, all. He has been using a Bayer fungicide for two seasons now, that seems to stop BS in its tracks (kills existing spores)...so far, it has done a great job.
I'll have him teach me. :0) Phyl

Phyl - Put your mind at ease. If your roses have been healthy and flourishing up til now, BS won't damage them all that much. My roses get pretty bad many years at this time because my kids' activities gear back up with school and all, and the spraying gets neglected. They've been storing up strength all summer, and a few weeks of BS won't kill them, in my experience. One year several years back when the twins were small, all of my roses had nary a leaf on them except for the ends of each cane, from roughly mid-September until I finally covered them for the winter. I don't believe I lost a single one that year, although I was afraid I might because they looked so sorry. Be sure you spray the soil and all the canes thoroughly next spring when it warms up, though.

Phyl,
As a zone 5a, I'll guess that your canes don't overwinter often. So any BS spores there won't be a problem. In my part of the world, there are some roses that have problems with their canes becoming repositories of BS and many other fungal diseases.
Since you're approaching the end of your season, much of the good things have already been made and stores in your roses' roots.
If you had to miss a spraying, this isn't the worst time of the year for that to happen.

Thanks again, Rose nutty and Ann...
you kinda put my mind at ease.
Gary is half way home (possibly in Canada now). He's going to show me how to use that sprayer after he gets home and gets some rest!
Our first summer of growing roses, I remember having a lot of BS, and I guess most of them did return the following spring!
:0) Phyl

Could I ask you guys:

a)If the rose becomes defoliated by Black spot - will the shrub turn leggy or will new growth going to appear?

b) I have so many birds in my garden. I noticed a few likes to take a sip from a drainage hole of my self-watering pots. If I spray my roses, with that poision the birds?